Sunday, July 05, 2009, 10:14 PM
In the News, Stop the Presses
By Kevin Moreau

Six brave kids

While the rest of the world was transfixed by the ongoing media maelstrom surrounding Michael Jackson’s death last week (This just in: Jacko still deceased!), my attention was focused elsewhere: specifically, on a group of American teenagers in a Central American nation under martial law.

I met these six kids—four girls and two boys—last Sunday at a hotel near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. They had driven down, with two adult chaperones, from a small town in North Carolina called Linville Falls. For months, they’d been preparing for this mission trip to Honduras on behalf of Linville Falls Community Church, a bucolic little place of worship a stone’s throw from the Blue Ridge Parkway. My wife’s parents attend the same church, and my wife had volunteered to bring the cash-strapped group a dinner of Mellow Mushroom pizza.

And then, of course, news broke that President Manuel Zelaya had been ousted in a coup.

Initial details were hard to come by. The most I could find on CNN were a couple of sentences on a crawl underneath red-carpet coverage of the BET Awards, and the many celebrities eager to eulogize a dead pop icon on camera. The State Department’s Web site advised that American visitors stay off the streets, but in the hours immediately after the coup, it was too early to tell how events would play out.

Things weren’t much clearer by the time we arrived with three large pizzas. These kids had no idea what to expect when their plane landed the next morning—if indeed it was allowed to land at all. But I was struck by their calm acceptance, their optimistic, wait-and-see attitude.

I keep referring to them as kids, and from my perspective, they are—all-American teens, their soft features dusted with acne, some still growing with gangly grace into their full height. And yet they bore the uncertainty of their situation with an ease I wouldn’t have expected from most adults. Maybe it was the seeming invulnerability of youth, or just simple faith. But I left that night impressed by their pragmatism, and their belief in their ability to adapt to whatever might happen.

And they have indeed adapted. They arrived in Honduras just fine, although military roadblocks have forced a change of plans. Last I’d heard on July 1, they were safe in Copan, exploring, learning the language and culture, looking forward to working on a water project in Santa Rita.

Back in the States, we continue to obsess over the latest details of the Jackson saga: Who will care for his kids? Who will take over his scheduled concerts? Whatever became of Bubbles?

As a consumer and follower of popular culture, I’m the prime audience for such saturation coverage. But my heart just hasn’t been in it this week. My head has been elsewhere: with six brave teens I barely know, having the adventure of a lifetime.